As Sri Lanka's purported PM Rajapaksa steps down today 15 December, the longest political crisis that the country faced too comes to an end. And with it, the much debated Constitutional Reform agenda is also thrown to the backseat.

The announcement of Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation comes a short time after Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court allowed the stay order that prevents Mahinda Rajapaksa from functioning as PM dealing another blow to President Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine's coup.

The Supreme Court, considering appeals filed by Mahinda Rajapaksa and 48 others, allowed the stay order that prevented Mahinda Rajapaksa from functioning as PM (the hearings will resume on 16, 17 and 18 January 2019).

In the series of legal setbacks to purported PM Rajapaksa,the biggest legal blow was not the 14 December determination, but the December 13's historic Supreme Court verdict which unanimously dismissed President Sirisena's dissolution of Parliament saying it ‘was unconstitutional and illegal.’ Accordingly, the Supreme Court quashed the gazette notification of President, published on 9th November "dissolving the parliament and calling for elections in January".

Shortly after latest, December 14 Supreme Court's determination, PM Rajapaksa's son Namal Rajapaksa MP tweeted "To ensure stability of the nation, Former President @PresRajapaksa has decided to resign from the Premiership tomorrow after an address to the nation. The SLPP with Former President, SLFP & others will now work to form a broader political coalition with President Sirisena."

Within minutes of Namal Rajapaksa 's tweet, celebratory crackers were heard in Colombo 4,5 and 6.

Thereafter, speculation in the capital was that deposed PM Ranil Wickremesinghe is to be sworn in despite President Sirisena's strong objection to him returning to the PM seat. President Sirisena announcement on 13 December that a new PM and Cabinet will be sworn in on Monday 17 "as per the wishes/preferences of the majority" cannot be ignored either.

Still, later to the night of 14 December, political circles were buzzing with the possibility that Wickremesinghe would be sworn not on coming Monday but on Saturday 15th (today) or tomorrow Sunday 16.

Despite his political disaster, Mahinda Rajapaksa may find a key position in the main political stage- in that, if R Sampanthan, the opposition leader (Tamil National Alliance) is not considered anymore as the "opposition" due to his support to deposed PM Wickremesinghe (and the deposed UNF government) to show UNF government majority, then the door for Mahinda Rajapaksa to become the new opposition leader (which his SLPP members would not object to), opens wide, and he may be able to save his lost face.

Even though deposed Wickramasinghe and UNF returning back to governance, their efforts to introduce a new constitution / constitutional reforms would now be relegated to the back seat as the immediate national priority is not one of constitutional reform but of urgent economic survival.

This could disappoint TNA which apparently expects such reforms in lieu of its support to UNF to gain majority in Parliament. It is not law reforms but the drastic slowdown in economy, tourism and social wellbeing in general that now calls urgent work-given that the elections too are around the corner in 2020.

As The Hindu reported on 20 November, Sampanthan said: “The turmoil had seriously impaired ‘ongoing efforts’ for a political solution through constitutional reform- the possibility of resolving key Tamil concerns i.e. release of military occupied lands, release of political prisoners, enforced disappearances and reparations, had been seriously called into question.”

The TNA had called for constitutional changes that accepted the Tamil people’s right to self-determination, devolved powers of land, law and order, socio-economic development, cultural affairs and domestic and foreign fiscal powers and direct foreign investment in the North-East under a federal structure in their 2015 general election manifesto.